Carolina Chargers enter home stand

Provided
The Carolina Chargers make their way to the stadium Saturday.

The Carolina Chargers semi-pro football team enters a three-game home stand Saturday.

The Chargers host the Florida Falcons at 7 p.m. at the Stadium located at the old site of Stall High School (7763 Northside Drive, North Charleston). All the team’s home games are played at that stadium.

Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for children age 6-12. Children age 5 and under are admitted free.

The Chargers were founded last summer and the team is four games into its debut season with the Gridiron Developmental Football League.

“Our league is very aggressive and hard-hitting, basically a step down from the NFL,” Chargers owner Lisa Drake said. “However, we try to make our games family oriented and fun. We have an announcer and security and bring in referees. Most of the teams we play are established teams that are very professional.”

Drake, a Summerville resident, is the league’s first and only female owner. Her squad is still looking for its first win, but the majority of its games have been very tight contests.

“We actually have more talent than we were expecting when we first started,” Drake said. “We have 65 players on our roster. We could use more depth at the quarterback position, but otherwise we are pretty set. This isn’t the semi-pro football some people are used to. Our goal was to have a professionally run team and I spend about 50 hours a week on the program.”

The league was designed in part to help get players who didn’t have the opportunity to play in college a shot at getting noticed by NFL scouts. Some of its teams have also drawn the attention of college scouts looking for players who may have been overlooked or in need of a second chance.

“We have a young group of guys who just love playing football,” Drake said. “Some of them are hoping to get noticed by colleges and many of them will tell you they drew college interest but didn’t have the grades or even had a scholarship but then got into trouble.”

In an effort to help keep her players on the right path and to give back to the community, Drakes makes sure her team participates in community service activities. Players and coaches have volunteered their time to read to kids and participate in numerous school events.

“We emphasize that everything isn’t about them,” Drake said. “We work as a family and want our guys to understand that kids look up to them.”

For more on the team, go to www.thecarolinachargersfootballteam.org. For more on the league, go to www.gdfl.org.

Carolina Chargers 2014 Schedule

May 17, @ Florida Falcons

May 31, Palmetto Havoc

June 7, @ Carolina Venom

June 14, Florida Falcons

June 28, South Carolina Bulls

July 5, Rockhill Scorpions

July 12, @ Palmetto Havoc

July 19, Carolina Venom

July 26, @ Rockhill Scorpions

Aug. 9, @ South Carolina Bulls

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